#IReadsYou Review: O-PARTS HUNTER Volume 2

O-PARTS HUNTER, VOL. 2
VIZ MEDIA

CARTOONIST: Seishi Kishimoto
ISBN: 978-1-4215-0856-6; paperback; (February 13, 2007) Rated “T+” for Older Teen
192pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S.

666 Satan is a Japanese manga series written and drawn by Seishi Kishimoto.  It was originally published in the magazine, Monthly Shōnen Gangan, from 2001 and 2007.  VIZ Media published an English-language edition of the manga as a 19-volume, paperback graphic novel series, entitled O-Parts Hunter, from 2006 to 2009.

The manga series O-Parts Hunter is essentially a card-playing or game manga.  “O-Parts” are artifacts containing mystical powers.  They are all that are left of an unknown ancient civilization and come in the form of everyday objects like rings and amulets to the more unusual such as aircraft and arcane technology.

An O.P.T. or O-Parts Tactician has the ability to release and use the power within an O-Part.  The “Spirit” is the special energy force inside an O.P.T. that allows him release the power or “effect” of an O-Part.  If an O-Part can create water, then, water is the O-Part’s effect.

O-Parts Hunter, Vol. 2 (Chapters 4 to 8) continues to follow the adventures of the series’ lead characters: Jio Freed and Ruby Crescent.  Jio, an O.P.T. whose chosen O-Part is a boomerang, wants to dominate the world (really, he does.)  Ruby wants to become the greatest treasure hunter of them all.  Together they travel the world in hopes of getting closer to their dreams.

Their travels take them to the walled metropolis of Entotsu City, where Master Jaga, the governor of the city, has enslaved the populace and uses the citizens to dig for O-Parts.  He also uses the threat of terror and his ability to fight it to keep Entotsu City dependent upon his rule (sound familiar?), but Jio has discovered his dirty big secret.  Will it cost the ambitious O.P.T. his and Ruby’s lives?

THE LOWDOWN:  Although the esoteric mythology that drives O-Parts Hunter can be off-putting (I initially didn’t want to read this.), there is really more to it than just gathering strength points and items of power.  At O-Parts Hunter's core is the quest to be a hero and all the sacrifice and work it takes to become one.  Seishi Kishimoto makes watching Jio face and overcome his obstacles fun to read.  Kishimoto’s art is also quite reminiscent of Masashi Kishimoto’s work on Naruto.  Why?  Seishi and Masashi are twin brothers.

I am partial to manga built around obtaining objects and power.  This includes titles such as Dragon Drive or Yu-Gi-Oh!  Plus, this is similar in tone to my beloved Naruto.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Seishi Kishimoto will want to try O-Parts Hunter.

B
6 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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#IReadsYou Book Review: BLEACH: Can't Fear Your Own World

BLEACH: CAN'T FEAR YOUR OWN WORLD
VIZ MEDIA

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

ORIGINAL STORY: Tite Kubo
AUTHOR: Ryohgo Narita
TRANSLATION: Jan Mitsuko Cash
COVER/DESIGNER: Jimmy Presler
ISBN: 978-1-9747-1326-4; paperback (July 2020)
256pp, B&W, $14.99 US, $19.99 CAN, £10.99 UK

Bleach is a shonen manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo.  Bleach was serialized in the Japanese manga magazine, Weekly Shōnen Jump, from August 2001 to August 2016 and was comprised of 686 chapters, which were collected in 74 tankobon (like a graphic novel).

Bleach focuses on Ichigo “Strawberry” Kurosaki, a teenage boy born with the ability to see ghosts.  Joining the “Soul Society,” Ichigo becomes a “Soul Reaper.”  He dedicates himself to protecting the innocent from a kind of malevolent lost soul known as a “Hollow,” and also to helping these tortured spirits find peace.

Bleach is also a media franchise, spawning a long-running anime television series (“Bleach”), four feature films, OVA (original video anime) episodes, video games, stage musicals, merchandise, and spin-off novels.  After the manga ended, Tite Kubo and various authors began producing novelizations of the Bleach series.

Kubo and Japanese novelist and manga writer, Narita Ryohgo, also produced a new Bleach novel, Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World, with Kubo providing the story and Ryohgo writing the novel.  It began serialization in Japan in April 2017, and it was collected in three paperback “light novels,” published between August 2017 and December 2018.  VIZ Media began publishing an English-language edition of Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World as a series of paperback novels under its “Shonen Jump” imprint in July 2020.

The central story line of Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World opens almost a year after the end of the Quincie's Thousand Year Blood War, in which Ichigo Kurosaki and his allies defeated the Quincy leader, Yhwach.  The embers of turmoil still smolder in the Soul Society, and incidents in the past threaten to worsen the unease.

The story focuses on Shuhei Hisagi, the assistant captain of the Ninth Company, who loves guitars and motorcycles from the world of the living.  Hisagi was once a reporter for the newspaper, the “Seireitei Bulletin,”and his late mentor, Kaname Tosen, was the editor-in-chief.  Now, Hisagi has been made the newspaper's provisional editor, and he is confronted with a mystery Tosen left behind.

Tosen once had a confrontation with Lord Tokinada Tsunayashiro, a minor aristocrat in the Tsunayashiro family, one of the “Five Great Noble Clans” and a clan said to be involved in the creation of the Soul Society.  Tokinada has recently become elevated to head of his family after a slew of assassinations take out every other claimant to the title of head of the clan.  Now, he has a grand plan to create a new “Soul King,” and it involves a very powerful child named Hikone Ubugino, who worships Tokinada so much that the child is practically his slave.

Tokinada's dark ambitions are sowing the seeds of disquiet throughout of the Soul Society, and may lead to a new total war.  The one Soul Reaper who unknowingly holds the key to stopping Tokinada is that very assistant captain and reporter/provisional editor, Shuhei Hisagi.

[This book contains spot illustrations, drawn in Tite Kubo's style; a four-page illustrated character guide; and a full-color mini-poster insert.]

THE LOWDOWN:  Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World is a strange novel.  Technically, readers don't have to have read the Bleach manga in order to read the novel.  To understand and to comprehend the story, plots, characters, and settings, readers will have to understand the world of Bleach, with which they will be familiar via the manga and/or the “Bleach” anime series.

So I write this review in that context.  If you understand Bleach, you can understand this novel and also enjoy it, to one degree or another.  Ryohgo Narita delves deeply into the personalities of the characters and explores the motivations of some of the characters.  That tends to slow the narrative, but I get the sense that this novel was written to tantalize Bleach fans and not to offer impressive prose.

The main story is linear, mostly, but the entire novel jumps around between many pasts and the present so much that I want to call this a non-linear narrative, although it really is not that.  Also, this novel is just the first volume, and it reads like one long prologue that introduces the central conflict (Shuhei Hisagi vs. Tokinada Tsunayashiro?) and the supporting players, of which there are way too many, as far as I am concerned.  Still, I have to admit that I am intrigued enough by Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World that I want to read “Volume II.”

This book contains several spot pencil art illustrations that are either drawn by Tite Kubo or by an assistant in Kubo's style.  I love that beautiful illustration that is the book cover art and is also used for the mini-poster insert.  The cover art is eye-catching, and it may tempt Bleach fans that have never read a Bleach light novel to give this one a try.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Bleach will want to read the novel, Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World.

7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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#IReadsYou Review: DEMON SLAYER: Kimetsu No Yaiba Volume 3

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA, VOL. 3
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

MANGAKA: Koyoharu Gotouge
TRANSLATION: John Werry
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Steve “Stan!” Brown
LETTERS: John Hunt
EDITOR: Mike Montesa
ISBN: 978-1-9747-0054-7; paperback (November 2018); Rated “T” for “Teen”
192pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotoge.  The manga was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from February 2016 to May 2020.  VIZ Media has been publishing an English-language edition of the manga as a paperback graphic novel series under its “Shonen Jump” imprint since July 2018.

It is Taisho era Japan (1912 to 1926).  Tanjiro Kamado, a kindhearted boy, sells coal in order to support his mother and four siblings.  After one particularly taxing trip to sell coal, Tanjiro returns to his home in the forest to find his family slaughtered.  He discovers that a younger sibling, his sister Nezuko, has herself been transformed into a demon by the unknown demon that killed his family.  He became a Demon Slayer to find that demon.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba, Vol. 3 (Chapters 17 to 25) opens as Tanjiro continues his battle with the servants of Muzan Kibutsuji, the demon master.  Susamaru (balls) and Yahaba (arrows) prove to be quite formidable, and Tanjiro will need help from an unexpected place to defeat them.  If defeated, will these members of the “Twelve Kizuki” (demons that serve Kibutsuji) reveal secrets about their master?

Then, Tanjiro and Nezuko meet Zenitsu Agatsuma, a demon slayer who seems to be a coward.  He proves to be little to no help when they find an unusual house that is full of demons.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba manga is one of 2018's best new graphic novel series.  It is one of a group of excellent titles released by VIZ Media in 2018.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Graphic Novel 3 takes readers into the grit and determination of series hero, Tanjiro Kamado.  However, creator Koyoharu Gotouge makes sure that readers how kind and considerate Tanjiro is.  That complicates a narrative that is quite gruesome at times.  At the same time, other characters begin to show layers and textures in their personalities, another element that makes Demon Slayer a manga to read.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of demon-fighting heroes will want to read the Shonen Jump title, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba.

A
9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

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#IReadsYou Review: GREY Chapter 3

GREY. CHAPTER 3
THE GREY ROOM

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Kris Hornett
ART: Ardee Arollado
SPECIAL PROJECTS ART: Kenet Guevarra
EDITOR: Lisa Taylor
28pp, B&W, $10.00 (September 2020)

Chapter 3 “Deja Vu”

Grey is a recently-launched. independently published comic book series from writer Kris Hornett and artist Ardee Arollado.  Published by The Grey Room, Grey is a hybrid, a combination of an American comic book format and Japanese manga.  Grey is similar to what was once called “OEL manga” or “original English language” manga.  These were American graphic novels in which the storytelling borrowed or mimicked the aesthetics and sensibilities of Japanese manga (comics).

Grey is set in the realm of Ketiyama (apparently an archipelago) and takes place some time after an event known as “the Sonoma Incident.”  This outbreak of the lethal “Moon Virus” on Nacirema, one of Ketiyama's islands, led to chaos, destruction, and division.  As a sign of good faith and as a last attempt to restore order, the ruling Board of Officials allowed the people to elect a team of highly trained tactical agents, known as “the Bureau,” to serve and protect them.  Within the Bureau is an elite unit known as “Nimbus.”  This team of five agents are sworn to maintain moral balance and to enforce the law.  The agents of Nimbus are also able to manipulate their “prana” (“life energy”).

The agents of Nimbus are Samara Asuhara, Kouken Masimuto, Shuyin Hagamuri, Manu Yagyu, and Kale Schaefer.  Belisia Asuhara is their handler and the creator of Nimbus.

As Grey. Chapter 3. (“Deja Vu”) opens,  Shuyin visits with his mother, who has telepathic abilities.  Through her, Shuyin gets to play with his memories and experiences with Willow, the young woman from his past who is connected to the Bureau's current case.

Elsewhere, agents Samara and Kouken visit Kale Schaefer to discuss the mysterious “okami mask,” its notorious past and its connection to Kale's past.  Later, Samara and Kouken may be unaware of the danger near them.  Have they walked into a trap?

THE LOWDOWN:  Grey is conceptually well-developed, and the world in which it is set has a complex history.  The authors are simultaneously building a world and unwrapping a science fiction dramatic narrative.

Grey Chapter 3 first takes a deep dive into Shuyin's mind.  I find Shuyin's interior world:  memories, dreams, thoughts, etc. to be an engaging way to delve into the character and into everything that is going on around him – past, present, and future.  As much as I like Grey's other characters, I feel as if I never get enough of him, but it is good that Hornett and Arollado have their lead emerge as a star character so early in the series.

Meanwhile, Hornett takes time to take us to some other characters, and as I wrote in a previous review, all the characters are interesting in some way.  They make the world of Grey an exciting place for readers to be, and Hornett always leaves me wanting more.  Twenty-five pages of story is a lot these days, but 50 pages per issue of Grey would not be enough.  It is still early enough to get in on the ground floor of this exciting American manga, dear readers.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of manga-inspired comic books will want to read Grey.

[This comic book includes two pages of additional informative text pieces.]

A-
7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: FALCON & WINTER SOLDIER #1

FALCON & WINTER SOLDIER #1 (OF 5)
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Derek Landy
ART: Federico Vicentini
COLORS: Matt Milla
LETTERS: VC's Joe Caramagna
EDITOR: Alanna Smith
COVER: Dan Mora with David Curiel
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Bengal; Butch Guice with Frank D'Armata; Ziyian Liu
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (April 2020)

Rated T+

Sam Wilson/The Falcon created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan; Falcon costumed designed by Alex Ross

James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby; The Winter Soldier created by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting

Sam Wilson a.k.a. The Falcon is a Marvel Comics superhero.  Wilson/Falcon first appeared in Captain America #117 (cover date: September 1969).  The Falcon uses mechanical wings to fly, and he has limited telepathic and empathic control over birds.

James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes is a Marvel Comics superhero.  Writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby introduced “Bucky” as a sidekick to Captain America in Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941).   Published by Marvel's predecessor, Timely Comics, Captain America Comics #1 also introduced Captain America.

Over six decades later, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting reinvented Bucky as being brought back from supposed-death to be the brainwashed assassin called “The Winter Soldier.”  The character, which debuted in Captain America #1 (cover dated: January 2005), was the villain slash adversary in the 2014 film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will team up in an upcoming Marvel Studios television series, “The Falcon & the Winter Soldier,” for the Disney+ streaming service.  Marvel Comics is getting in on the action with a five-issue limited series entitled... Falcon & Winter Soldier.  It is written by Derek Landy; drawn by Federico Vicentini; colored Matt Milla; and lettered by Joe Caramagna.

Falcon & Winter Soldier #1 opens at the Indiana home of Bucky Barnes, where he and his cat are enjoying some morning solitude.  Then, a group of men, armed with military-style weaponry, break into the house to kill Bucky.  [This attack is similar to the one that heavily-armed German security forces launched into Bucky's apartment in the 2016 film, Captain America: Civil War.]

Later, in New York City, The Falcon decides to pay a visit as Sam Wilson to the local office of an agency called the “Office of Federal Utilities.”  There, he finds an entire office of dead people... and the Winter Soldier, but Bucky says he didn't do it – kill all these people.  So, it seems that the dramatic attempt on Bucky's life has reunited The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.  They decide that they will have to hunt down the identity of the new leader of Hydra, but a gifted new killer is also hunting them.

I bought a copy of Falcon & Winter Soldier #1 for a friend of mine to read.  I was a little interested in it, as a fan of The Falcon, but not enough to purchase it for myself.  I got it back and decided to read it, and I have to admit that it was way better than I thought it would be.  Writer Derek Landy offers a simple, but straight-forward story.  There is a goal, uncover Hydra's new secrets, and there is a shocking new adversary, a gifted young killer.  The cover of Falcon & Winter Soldier looks like it belongs to a high-octane action comic book series, and it turns out that Falcon & Winter Soldier #1 reads like an actual, honest-to-goodness, high-octane action comic book.

Artist Federico Vicentini is not a polished illustrator and draftsman.  Some of his figure drawing and background details look awkward and funky.  However, his storytelling is clean and clear, especially important for this genre of comic book.  Matt Milla's coloring is good enough, but not particularly imaginative, and Joe Caramagna's lettering is by-the-books, but good enough.

Falcon & Winter Soldier #1 is not great, but it is the kind of satisfying start that could make me come back for the second issue.  I might even buy the inevitable trade paperback collection.

7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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BOOM! Studios from Diamond Distributors for January 27, 2021

BOOM! STUDIOS

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Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for January 27, 2021

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